Maddening brilliance: Ars reviews Demon’s Souls

Demon's Souls is one of the most challenging and frustrating games you're ever …

It's been a long time since I played something like Demon's Souls. I couldn't pause. I died a lot. It took me roughly six hours to beat the first real level of the game. I died some more. The game's mood constantly made me feel uneasy and jumpy. I kept on dying. And yet, I continued to play it with relish because I knew from the moment I started the adventure that this action-RPG was something special.

The game, created by From Software, is a pain to learn, terrifyingly difficult, and downright eerie a lot of the time. It's an unforgiving adventure that will probably turn off many gamers, primarily those who are used to easier titles; if you like games that coddle their players, this isn't for you. But, if you are willing to put up with the insane difficulty and like to actually work at playing a game, you'll discover that Demon's Souls is an incredibly rare gem.

The game's intro paints a pretty bleak picture: in the kingdom of Boletaria, a king obsessed with power figured out a way to channel souls. For a while, this knowledge paid off and brought a brief age of prosperity to the land. After a while, though, a strange fog settled around the country and cut it off from the rest of the world.

Eventually, someone broke through the barrier and informed the country's neighbors that it had been invaded by the forces of the Old One, a powerful demon that was less-than-thrilled at the idea of someone horning in on its spiritual turf. Naturally, countless adventurers ventured into the fog, hoping to save the kingdom, but were never heard from again. The player-character is like the rest of the ill-fated heroes, but with one ace up their sleeve: they've been granted aid by the mysterious Maiden in Black, who rescues them from the jaws of death.

The premise of Demon’s Souls sounds like it’s straight out of a tired fantasy novel, but it soon becomes apparent that this game is anything but ordinary. From the moment you begin your one-person war against the forces of darkness occupying Boletaria, you’ll quickly realize that the country is completely overrun by demons, dragons, soulless soldiers, skeletons, and zombies (of course). There are no NPCs to help you, no friendly characters to offer you aid or succor; everything out in the world is howling for your blood. In other words, it’s just you against the monsters.

But overwhelming odds are just the start of the ass-whooping that Demon’s Souls will hand to you many, many times. It’s not uncommon to die as you progress through a level. A lot. This is especially true when you first try to pause the game and then realize that it won't actually pause. Instead, a menu will appear over the screen, but the action continues in the background at full-speed.

It requires a lot of strategy to conquer a section of each province, and the only way to figure out which strategies work is to try something, (usually) fail miserably, and then try something else until you stumble across a winning approach that will let you inch a little further along before you have to repeat the process.

New armor, items, and weapons can be purchased at the Nexus, a sort of safe-haven for tortured souls. Nexus is the one place where nothing will try to kill you, and you'll have to backtrack here constantly if you want to store your items or pick up new ones. Purchases are made with the souls of fallen enemies that you collect. As a result, you'll often find yourself backtracking through a level to get to a warp point and return to Nexus in order to make a purchase before you are temporarily removed from the gene pool.

The backtracking is necessary because, when you die, you're taken back to the beginning of the section you were in. You also are left in your "phantom form," which sports a reduced amount of health than your character's physical body would. Finally, you'll also lose all the souls you've managed to accumulate up to that point. If you can fight your way back to the spot that you died and touch the bloodstain you left behind, you can regain some of the souls you lost. If you die three times before you get to it, though, the souls are lost for good. The only way to regain your physical form is by winning a boss battle, which is never an easy task.

In most cases, this would be maddening. But there is never a dull moment during this constant trial-and-error gameplay. Enemies are quite varied throughout levels: even though they look the same, they'll use different tactics and weapons, which means that you have to adjust your play style accordingly. While the bastard sword might be useful for crowd control on an open field, reduced numbers in tighter spaces might require something smaller and faster like an assassin's dagger.

Characters will eventually learn how to use magic and gain new skills, which deepens the gameplay experience significantly. Up to that point, though, players have to be extremely cautious while they creep through ruins and try not to become dinner for the next thing that goes bump in the night. It's often a nerve-wracking experience, checking every shadow and rounding corners as carefully as possible, hoping against hope that you won't be caught off-guard while you continue to inch through the world.

Part of Demon's Souls eeriness is also due to some great production decisions. Visually, the unease stems from each level's epic scale and the dreary coloring, but it's the audio that really manages to pull this off. There's practically no music to be heard as you go through a level, which makes every piece of background noise all the more noticeable. Like Hitchcock believed: things become rather intimidating when music isn't popping in to regularly remind the audience that what they're watching isn't real.

Finally, the title's online mechanic is unlike anything you are likely to experience in another game. The game will automatically connect to the PSN when you start it up, and players can indirectly contact each other by leaving messages throughout the world offering tips, hints, or warnings about upcoming obstacles. Later on, you'll gain the ability to travel into other players' games and either help or hunt them, depending on how you've progressed your character.

Your actions will actually affect the way the world works for others: if you choose to help other players, aiding them on a difficult quest or battle, the Character Tendency of the world will shift towards a white setting, meaning the game is easier and enemies aren't as tough. Hunting other players down, killing them, and stealing their souls, on the other hand, shifts the world towards a black setting and makes enemies a lot tougher. While you can put out a message asking other players for help, the events when others come into your world to hunt you down is random, so you'll constantly be on your toes for new threats after a certain point in the game's story.

Demon Souls is unlike any other RPG you're likely to play. While there are plenty of elements from other titles in the game, this title is so difficult, stylish, and incorporates enough original ideas that it manages to stand apart from — and well above — its competitors. Unfortunately, this challenge and depth is likely to turn off a number of gamers who prefer something easier. If you're willing to stick with this, though, Demon Souls will provide you with one of the greatest RPG experiences on the PS3.

Verdict: Buy

72 Reader Comments

Originally posted by Bird Skull:It sounds like an absolute mess with gamebreakingly moronic bugs left in. No pause? Forced griefing? Trial and error with lost exp? Constant backtracking? I'd expect these flaws in a 15 year old JRPG, but in a modern game it's simply unacceptable. Another disturbing trend in practically every game now a days is the addition of excessive grinding to earn upgrades. I blame the success of WoW for convincing a generation of lazy video game producers that they can artificially inflate the "depth" of their buttonmashing by letting the player earn 0.001% of a new sword for each skeleton. But they don't stop there, they have the brazen lack of foresight to combine two gameplay flaws together into a truly impressive disincentive to keep playing: the ancient "lose everything if you die" penalty. Is this the goddamn NES? Unfortunately judging by the tone of this review and other commentary, modern gamers are so desperate for something to squander their time doing that they not only tolerate but welcome these abominable design choices. I think that's very telling.Video games are supposed to be fun to play. That is the universal immutable goal that a game developer should strive for whenever they consider introducing game features. Too often it seems that developers are cluelessly implementing unenlightened and ill-considered concepts and elements that deviate from this goal. So they churn out mediocre grindfests for masochistic mouthbreathers with more free time than brains. These kids can be counted on to turn out in droves get in on the hype machine and plop down their $60 for the honor of spending 90% of their gameplay hours grinding recycled enemies. Just all part of the big problem.

I'm sure there is a Dora the Explorer game out there that is just perfect for you. Maybe a game with a giant button that says "YOU WIN" and you can walk up and press it, then the game is over and you can walk away feeling impressed with yourself.

Originally posted by crestfaller_1:It's MULTIPLAYER. How do you propose that they allow pausing?

Do you pause other multiplayer games that you play mid-match?

If you need to take a breather, just warp back to the Nexus. There are shards of stone that let you do just that, though I've only found 4 or 5 of them in the 15 hours I've played so far.

I think some people would have liked the option to disable co-op/pvp and just play single player and allow for pausing as well. Or it could have been set up where pausing is allowed only when another player isn't currently in your world and while paused no one can enter. There are really a lot of ways they could have done this and kept the same experience for everyone else.

I haven't been able to buy this game yet but, from what I am reading I simply can not wait to pick this game up. I love games that a Brutally hard and do not "hold your hand" while playing. Of course when I do play this and die the 4 billionth time I will scream, swear and generally wish horrible things upon the devs but, I will learn something from the game. Some questions maybe some fells arsians can answer for me: Can you dual wield with any class? Is it easy to create a hybrid class? (for example a knight that can cast magic.) Just from what I have read pure casters seem to be at a disadvantage in this game, is that true? I think the only problem I am going to run into with this game is finding the right amount of time to play it. Getting married and buying a house take up a lot of time. Starting to get in the way of gaming...grr getting older sucks.

Originally posted by clank75:Anyone know if this is going to get a release in the UK?

[And if not, are there any problems playing imported games on a euro PS3 (in HD - so no NTSC/PAL probs I presume)? I've not tried before...]

I'm in Europe, from Norway.

I allways order my import-games from videogameplus.ca, when importing from US.Since they usually send from private-person addresses, and mostly downmark the pricing on the packages with 'toy-game 20$', and saves me unnecessary import-tax costs.So when my friend bought rockband-bundle there it said 'toy-game 20$' on the package, it didn't get the 20% extra taxation-costs.

The only difference usually, is that we'll have more trouble buying potential DLC for the game, since that's usually region restricted.So if you import a PS3-game from USA, you'll need to create a US account in that zone to buy DLC for that game.And a US account with fake US address, will complain when you try to put in your European creditcard address, so you'll have to buy a PSN-card in a store, if you want DLC for that game.I don't think there is any DLC planned for Demon's Soul.We'll play with the American people, on American servers, when buying this game.

We might fail to connect to other persons when summoning or invading other phantasms, when we don't get good enough connection to the other players, in the states.But that's usually just a retry, and it works. :-)

Originally posted by Ars Moriendi:*Some gameplay mechanics not given enough love, like armor (would be nice to be able to upgrade it like weapons) and magic (limited focus items, and as a straight up kill method, by far the hardest in the game because mana regen is not prevalent)

I wish mana auto-regenerated (even slowly) because mana regen herbs are so hard for me to find

There is ways to regenerate mana automatically.Hint: a person farmer-class starting characther can't afford this expensive thing on his finger.

Originally posted by spanklez1:I haven't been able to buy this game yet but, from what I am reading I simply can not wait to pick this game up. I love games that a Brutally hard and do not "hold your hand" while playing. Of course when I do play this and die the 4 billionth time I will scream, swear and generally wish horrible things upon the devs but, I will learn something from the game. Some questions maybe some fells arsians can answer for me: Can you dual wield with any class? Is it easy to create a hybrid class? (for example a knight that can cast magic.) Just from what I have read pure casters seem to be at a disadvantage in this game, is that true?

Yes, starting classes are only back-ground, so you can have a magic-casting knight.However, the knight will need to find or buy the magic wand to cast magic even if he has learnt and memorized the spells.

You can also dual-vield, just put a weapon in the shield-arm slot, and you'll be able to use two weapons at once.

It's probably smart to have good stamina, if that's your strategy.

There are two slots for each arm, so you can quick-swap your weaponsettings with the DPad.

A large shield blocks more damage, but you can't use it to parry and set up enemies for critical counter-attacks the same way a small shield can.

I usually allways walk with my shield up, and alter between my sword, and magic wand in the other hand.

Originally posted by Ars Moriendi:*Some gameplay mechanics not given enough love, like armor (would be nice to be able to upgrade it like weapons) and magic (limited focus items, and as a straight up kill method, by far the hardest in the game because mana regen is not prevalent)

I wish mana auto-regenerated (even slowly) because mana regen herbs are so hard for me to find

There is ways to regenerate mana automatically.Hint: a person farmer-class starting characther can't afford this expensive thing on his finger.

I have umm, ring wep and I think something else, but its still tedious if you want it to be your main damage source.

A melee wep = infinite damage (so long as its not broken)spells = finite damage, with very high costs to stay in the fight

Is it easy to create a hybrid class? (for example a knight that can cast magic.) -- Yes. The only difference between classes is your starting stats and starting equipment. The starting equipment lasts a while but eventually gets replaced. Each "level up" is really just you picking a stat and adding +1 to it. So you can start with a caster, and add armor and strength/vitality/endurance/etc. Or start with a fighter, and add magical gear and magic/wisdom.

Just from what I have read pure casters seem to be at a disadvantage in this game, is that true? -- There's no real distinction between "pure" and "hybrid". You're just an adventurer with abilities. If you try to play like a D&D mage with no armor and crap weapons, you'll die fast and hard. You need good equipment, even if you choose to mostly use it as backup. :-) I've actually been through several boss fights with a mostly-caster character, so I'm doing a lot with magic alone, but you need to be prepared with some strategy: backtrack and hide and burn a lot of time/items on MP regeneration, or conserve your MP by following up a spell with a physical attack, or maybe take out the low-level grunts with a weapon and save your spells for the big stuff. But that's about what I would expect from a mage working his way through a solo adventure, so it doesn't feel like a disadvantage.

Agreed with other posters here on the death mechanic. I've only ever had one shot to get to my bloodstain, and if I die the original souls are lost. The result is I can only recover those souls I gained on the original recovery mission from the most recent bloodstain... and so on.

quote:

Originally posted by sword_9mm: i tried that ds one with the map you can draw and that was just as bad. casual gamer is i.

I believe you must be referring to Etrian Odyssey or the second. That is classic "Wizardry for Apple II" style pain reincarnated, fairly well I might add.

To me Demon's Souls is more the pain of the original FF titles on the NES with gameplay more like a "realtime-only Oblivion in third person". Oh and the AI is a lot more varied and deadly than ES IV:O.

Oh and I do have a wife and have only suffered moderate consequences from the interruptions so far... nothing to make me want to let go of this beauty of a wicked game.

So just to make sure I got all this. You die a lot. When you do you become a disembodied spirit with half health that can still fight and die. The only way to get your body back is to kill the boss (in half health spirit form). And if you manage to preserve your meat suit you are at risk of other players showing up and raping you with a tire iron. You can't leave to pee because there is no pause function, and if you can't make it to the bloody pool where you were removed from your meat suit without dying they take away the xp you have accumulated.

I got no problem with the difficulty aspect of it. I enjoy hard games, but do they offer any story based reasoning for the absurdity, or is it just that fucking weird for no reason?

This sounds pretty fun, but I don't know if I'm good enough to play. My skills tend a lot more to the turn based.

That sounds a lot like how I viewed this game before I started playing. I definitely gravitate more to strategy and turn-based type games in general. Lots of gamers can no doubt get through this game with a lot fewer deaths than myself, and I would put myself in the category of feeling the need to 'grind' quite a bit.

Even still, for myself, I can't put this game down... its just too compelling... too demonic. Great production values.

I highly recommend trying this out somewhere if you're on the fence.. if you like RPGs, this deserves a look. Sometimes action works in ways the turn-based games can't really convey. It depends on your tastes... and perhaps your willingness to suck but persevere.

Sorry, why it sounds interesting the whole "uber challenge" of it just turns me off. I got over the whole liking to play games which pissed me the hell off a few years back when one of my kids caught me getting insanly frustrated at a very difficult game and started emulating those actions when they got frustrated. Maybe I'll pikc it up when it hits the bargain bin but with Dragon Age, MW2, etc. all coming out in the next week to two weeks there is simply way more enjoyable options out there.

I just don't understand anymore how people can enjoy playing a game that frustrates them so much they would want to throw their controller... Life is too short to intentionally piss yourself off.

Originally posted by elty:Can you just not sign in PSN (or, unplug the network cable) if you want to avoid PvP?

Yes. Or you can fight in your soul form... I got a ring early on ("Cling Ring") that keeps my HP at 70+% of full "live" hp. Its hard to explain, but I'm pretty sure they *intended for this game to be played mostly in soul form, and it somehow works well.

Originally posted by ronelson:No pause button, seriously? I have a wife, guess I will have to pass.

You surely jest...You meant to say I have life. Reading about the review and other people's post, this looks like the must try game for me. A few questions though:

And to those people who played this game:1. Is the online persistent universe? Does Fram software host the online portion?2. Roughly how long does this game last?3. Recommended as a single player or co-op?4. Can Ninja Gaiden difficulty be comparable to this game or is this really insane difficult?

I played this game for a while before returning it. It's a beautiful game, quite difficult, with a lot of unique features, but the repetition is unforgivable.

It's one thing to make boss battles difficult or require a lot of creativity to figure out how to proceed past a certain area, but when you are forced to replay the entire level in order to get back to a boss or an area where you died, that's just poor design. There IS an auto-save feature, you just can't use it in game: if you die you can (on the PS3 version) quickly press the PS button and quit the game, then when you relaunch you'll be back where you were.

When I found myself doing this repeatedly to avoid the monotony (not difficulty, MONOTONY) of replaying an entire level to get back to a boss or area I'd died in previously, I knew it was time to quit playing.

Originally posted by Demondeluxe:So just to make sure I got all this. You die a lot. When you do you become a disembodied spirit with half health that can still fight and die. The only way to get your body back is to kill the boss (in half health spirit form). And if you manage to preserve your meat suit you are at risk of other players showing up and raping you with a tire iron. You can't leave to pee because there is no pause function, and if you can't make it to the bloody pool where you were removed from your meat suit without dying they take away the xp you have accumulated.

I got no problem with the difficulty aspect of it. I enjoy hard games, but do they offer any story based reasoning for the absurdity, or is it just that fucking weird for no reason?

You'll also be able to get your life-form back by using some item drops, but those are few and far between. :-/

The lack of pause-button ain't really a problem, for stopping the danger in most of the game, it's more that you'll need to be prepeared because you'll have trouble if you need to change strategy while fighting.

This means that it's smart to sort your quick-slots before going forward, i.e if you havn't put healing herbs into any quick-slots, you can't suddenly stop time when fighting a monster, and search through your backpack for the correct items in the middle of the fight, you'll need to have fixed that before engaging, or you'll be in trouble.

The enemies won't respawn until you die.

So if you just need to take a leak, all you'll need to do, is just to step back 20-30 yards, or not advance, and you'll be standing back perfectly safe for the most part.

It's not like people are invading you constantly, I've never been invaded yet, and only invaded one person once. :P

You can also quit the game, and when you load it back in, you'll come up at the same place as when you quit.--The story behind this is explained in the start, souls give power, king went to nexus, kingdom prospered, king became to greedy, woke up powerfull old evil demon from his slumber. King fled back to his kingdom with a mighty demon horde hungry for the souls of men, close in his heels.

Several heroes came to kingdom to slay demon's for their souls, or to try to save the land none of them have returned so far.

So you'll decide you'll go. :P

Then starts the tutorial, at the end of the tutorial, you'll be crushed by a big monster with a club as big as your body.

However instead of beeing dead, you wake up in the Nexus, a place between worlds, where a mysterious maiden in black has summoned you, and tell you that this isn't the end...

I've had this for a few days and I have to say the difficulty of this game has been way overstated. If you are cautious, walk with your shield up, don't run around like a 13 year old call of duty player, don't do stupid stuff like run into a field of smouldering corpses to snatch some loot while there's a dragon lounging nearby ... then you don't die that often (at least I don't and I am no master of gaming excellence).

In fact the multiplayer aspect kind of makes it easier because people are always leaving messages with tips on what is coming up. e.g. I felt kind of let down by the first boss, due to the tips on the ground outside I knew the correct strategy and walloped him first go. Have made a mental note not to read the messages from now on.

Yes, you have to replay the entire level if you die but then you have the added incentive of trying to get back to your bloodstain and recover the lost souls. There is this constant risk mechanic involved where you know that at any time you can go back to the nexus and spend your souls to upgrade .. but you always want to push on just to see what's around the corner. Its furiously addictive and those bagging it without playing it should give it a go and you might be pleasantly surprised.

One other nitpick from the review...

quote:

There are no NPCs to help you, no friendly characters to offer you aid or succor; everything out in the world is howling for your blood.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Did you even play through the very first Boletarian castle level in the rush to release this review?

Was really stoked on this review. I really like this game and I think that saying this game is tough is an understatement. I really love that there are some companies that will still make a tough game.